She Dumped Flood-Damaged Grapes Worth Over a Million Yuan in Losses, Yet Young Entrepreneur Han Juan Still Led Villagers to Prosperity

She is Han Juan, a young entrepreneur born after 1985. On her bumpy entrepreneurial journey of growing grapes, her story is told again and again.

The flood in July 2012 left her with nothing. She insisted on dumping all the grapes that had been soaked by the flood, worth over a million yuan, rather than letting them enter the market and affect consumers' health. When she started over, even though she was heavily in debt, she never once defaulted on the land rent owed to local farmers or the wages owed to workers.

She speaks without a drop of falsehood and does things in a down-to-earth way. Han Juan was named a "Model Leader of Rural Youth Entrepreneurship and Prosperity in Neijiang City" and a "Youth Entrepreneurship Mentor of Neijiang City." Her honest business practices have also made her grape business a much-told success story.

A Sense of Responsibility, a Sense of Conscience

Running the Vineyard with Integrity

On the afternoon of August 3, when the reporter arrived at Group 7 of Hongba Village, Tianjia Town, Dongxing District, Han Juan was in the courtyard counting the Summer Black grapes (a grape variety) picked from the greenhouse. Standing 1.6 m tall, with shoulder-length short hair and a slim build, she exuded capability in every way. Although she is now the general manager of Neijiang Dongxing District Zhenguo Planting Co., Ltd., she speaks softly and unhurriedly, without a trace of executive airs, more like a big sister next door.

Behind the courtyard, the 10-hectare vineyard is the fruit of all Han Juan's efforts. Since she resigned from a high-paying job at a state-owned enterprise in Chongqing in 2010 and resolutely returned home to start her business, every corner of this vineyard bears her sweat. In the 6 years of her entrepreneurial journey, the vineyard was flooded twice. In the face of great disaster, Han Juan's approach of honoring responsibility and conscience was passed along by word of mouth, establishing a reputation for honesty and trustworthiness for her vineyard.

On July 21, 2012, a rainstorm lasted from 6 p.m. that day until midnight the next day, and the water level of the Xiaoqinglong River kept rising, spreading toward Han Juan's vineyard. At 3 a.m. the next day, the flood rushed into the vineyard, submerging it to knee depth; by 6 a.m., the vineyard had become a vast expanse of water.

"At that time the grapes were in their ripening period, only a few days after the first picking opened. By the time the flood receded on the 23rd, the vineyard was a mess, with garbage, mud and destroyed facilities everywhere," Han Juan said. The first picking had barely opened when they encountered a catastrophic flood that occurs once in 30 years. Party committees and governments at all levels and the Communist Youth League committees came to Tianjia to learn about the disaster, and many volunteers also took the initiative to come to the vineyard to help pick grapes. When everyone gathered the rescued grapes together and discussed how to sell them and make up for the losses, Han Juan firmly refused to let these fruits enter the market.

"At that time I had already lost everything and knew it was impossible for me to rebuild the vineyard, but these grapes, after being soaked by the flood, carried a large amount of bacteria. If they entered the market, they would affect consumers' health, and that would also ruin my signboard of honest business," she said. Although volunteers, relatives and friends all advised her to salvage whatever she could, she stuck to her position and dumped all of this batch of grapes, weighing more than 50 tons and worth more than 1 million yuan, into the fermentation pit to be used as fertilizer for the vineyard.

On July 7, 2014, because of flood discharge upstream on the Xiaoqinglong River, the low-lying vineyard once again faced the threat of being submerged. To avoid repeating the past, Han Juan and the volunteers hurried to harvest the grapes, and dozens of tons of grapes filled the entire courtyard of more than 200 sq m. Afterward, the volunteers transported the grapes to Daqian Garden and Dazhou Square to sell at low prices to reduce losses.

That evening, Han Juan borrowed a street cleaner's broom and swept the sales site clean one spot at a time. By then it was already one or two in the morning, and she still asked people to help wash away the remaining traces of grapes on the ground with water. As for the remaining nearly 10 tons of grapes, which easily attracted flies and mosquitoes, Han Juan resolutely dumped them.

Giving Back to the Folks Back Home

Leading Villagers to Prosperity

In Group 7 of Hongba Village, many villagers praise Han Juan whenever she is mentioned: "This young woman is very hardworking. She contracted the village's land to build a vineyard, and in 6 years she never once defaulted on our rent. Even when she suffered floods and serious losses, she never shorted us a single cent."

Han Juan said: "In the 2012 flood, I deeply felt the care and help from the Party committee and government and from all sectors of society. Without them, I could not have stood up again and again from setbacks and achieved today's success." For this reason, Han Juan decided to set her company's development goal as giving equal weight to economic benefits and social benefits, and to help the people back home escape poverty and become prosperous as much as possible.

Han Juan's business model and planting techniques attracted many local returning entrepreneurs to come and "learn from her," and she took the initiative to provide grape seedlings and share planting experience. Not only that, she also encouraged more than ten nearby farming households willing to grow grapes to try planting them, providing grape seedlings free of charge and carrying out regular technical guidance. With her help, more than ten farming households gained considerable income. She also hired local left-behind women to work in her vineyard, earning over a thousand yuan a month.

From "going it alone" at the very beginning to now leading surrounding farming households to establish a professional cooperative and prosper together, the local villagers trust her more and more, and her efforts have been recognized.

As an ordinary young entrepreneur born after 1985, Han Juan has set up a spiritual banner of honesty and trustworthiness through her words and deeds, and has successively won many honors, including "Model Leader of Rural Youth Entrepreneurship and Prosperity in Neijiang City," "Youth Entrepreneurship Mentor of Neijiang City," and "Outstanding Individual in Employment and Entrepreneurship in the City." She says that running a business with integrity and giving back to society is the duty and obligation of every entrepreneur, and she hopes to lead poor villagers back home out of poverty and toward prosperity through her own efforts.